INSIDE A HIVE 
37 
cal violence—a course which might be interpreted 
as showing an inherent respect for the person of 
their Hive Mother. 
I doubt very much that the old queen is balled 
by her bees when superseded, though that used to be 
the theory. More often, I believe, is she killed by 
the young queen, her daughter, and balling is only 
practiced by bees under the influence of anger or 
excitement, particularly toward a newcomer. 
When a queen has been “accepted,” we may see 
her fulfilling her duties under our very eyes, if the 
bees are quietly disposed and the beekeeper care¬ 
ful. In dignified manner she curves her ab¬ 
domen into an empty cell and deposits an egg 
the size of a pin head. There are many thousands 
of cells and in the height of the season she may lay 
two thousand eggs a day. Those eggs will develop 
into larvae and soon the busy workers will put caps 
over the tops of the cells, while the larvae go through 
the pupa stage of their twenty-one day development 
from egg to bee. 
Perhaps there is in the hive an empty frame from 
the middle of whose top hangs a thick, curtain-like 
mass of bees, all clinging to each other much as they 
do when swarming. They are making wax. 
For this they have another unknown recipe, mak- 
